Appleseed

It's 2131 A.D., and the future of the human race hangs in the balance. Female soldier Deunan Knute has survived a major war that has pushed the earth to the brink of destruction. Located in a bombed-out urban wasteland, Deunan is transported to the Utopian city of Olympus and reunited with her former lover, Briareos, whose body is now half-man, half-cyborg. In Olympus City, half the population is made up of Bioroids, a genetically engineered species with a limited life span, who are designed without unstable human emotions in order to create a peaceful society and protect the remaining members of the human race.

In utopia, however, all is not as it seems. A group of rebel humans, who perceive bioroids as a threat to the integrity and future of mankind, try to sabotage the Olympus city computer and destroy the ability to reactivate the bioroid reproductive functions. As Deunan battles to stop the terrorists and find the "Appleseed" data needed to extend bioroid life, the question of who she can trust and who is actually right- their society, or the terrorists- continues to arise.

Deunan Knute, Briareos, Hitomi

A remake of Masamune Shirow's "Appleseed" (1988).

Completely computer-animated.

Creative producer Fumihiko Sori calls Appleseed "the world's first real-life-CG-anime movie."

Release date is that of premiere in London; Japanese release date of film is April 17, 2004.

This is one of the first films to use a new technology called "toon-shading" which makes the 3-D characters resemble cel-anime.

This is the first film directed by Shinji Aramaki, who specializes in 3-D effects for TV and videogames.

Based on Masamune Shirow's best-selling manga of the same title, which was first printed in 1985, and which has since been translated and sold to numerous countries across the globe.

One animation producer estimated the budget as "about 5% of the usual budget of a Pixar feature."